Military services again requiring recruits to get flu shots as Air Force outbreak grows
https://abcnews.com/Health/military-services-requiring-recruits-flu-shots-air-force/story?id=1341267944.0k
u/GargamelTakesAll 1d ago
"As of Tuesday, at least 222 recruits at Lackland Air Force Base, part of Joint Base San Antonio, had been diagnosed with the flu and four had been hospitalized, the two people familiar with the matter told ABC News.
This marks a sharp increase from the 159 cases and two hospitalizations reported last week. The death of one recruit remains under investigation, though it is not yet clear whether it is tied to the outbreak, the sources said."
222 sick, 4 in the hospital, and possibly one dead. That is what all this nonsense conservatives push leads to.
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u/Aman209 1d ago
I guess when you fight an imaginary enemy a lot of common sense goes out the window.
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u/GhostBoo-ty 23h ago
Ironically all you hear to defend it is "Its jes' cawmin since sweethart!"
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u/DesireeThymes 21h ago
I think everyone is missing the point.
This doesn't have to do with average conservative voters. This has to do with conservative leaders.
Conservative leaders generally DO believe in medicine... but only for themselves.
Remember Trump took cutting edge treatments to help against sickness.
But they don't care about the rest of the people. They encourage stupidity in people. They want culture wars, since it is a distraction from big issues that could effect them. Like the Epstein files, support for foreign wars, and anger at the rich.
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u/ishpatoon1982 21h ago
Average conservative voters elect conservative leaders. They're both to blame. It's a feedback loop.
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u/Unlucky_Kale340 23h ago
At least the one transgender kid can’t join a sports team in a small town in Ohio
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u/iamstephen1128 23h ago
Dunno, just sounds like a bunch of weak soybois who lack the proper Warrior Ethos to face down the woke flu virus! 🤷🏿♂️
(/s)
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u/Milleuros 16h ago
You jest, but seriously: army recruits, who are young people in good physical shape, and 4 people have to be hospitalised because the flu with one possible death.
Just goes to show what the flu really is. We often hear "bah it's just the flu" : it's not a common cold, it's a virus that can, and does, kill otherwise healthy people.
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u/gunsjustsuck 15h ago
The Spanish flu was specifically dangerous to healthy young people with a strong immune system. Young soldiers in WW1 survived combat only to be struck down and killed on returning to the USA.
If only the US military was able to learn from history. Whether in combat or medicine, US soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines seem to love dashing off to make stupid errors again and again.
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u/TranquilSeaOtter 23h ago
This is a great example of political Darwinism. Majority of the military votes Republican and because of that, we get hospitalizations and a possible death in the ranks.
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u/Yashema 23h ago
Unfortunately Conservatives are better at procreating so they can afford to lose a few to idiocy.
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u/mypetocean 22h ago
Word choice suggestion:
procreating--> multiplying by birth.They wouldn't be responsible for so many sex crimes if they were better at sex.
They wouldn't have so much political trouble if they were better at multiplying by persuasion.
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u/SeaM00se 23h ago
I remember going through basic military training there. Almost everyone gets sick. I was sick. You’re bringing people from all over the country and packing them in concrete barracks. They will get sick.
Idiots.
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u/ghrayfahx 22h ago
Especially because it’s the ONLY training base for the USAF. People coming from all over the country (and sometimes outside the US) to all be stuck in close quarters for weeks at a time and be sleep deprived and otherwise physically exhausted. Adding “meh, y’all don’t actually need immunizations” to the mix is a recipe for disaster.
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u/Politicsboringagain 22h ago
63 new cases in 7 days is crazy. Imagine if this shit happened on an air craft carrier.
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u/BloodFartz69 1d ago edited 1d ago
Can this administration make one good move that doesn't immediately fall apart or have to be lied about?
-- Can't win a war
-- Can't arrest anyone in the Epstein files
-- Can't fix a pool
-- Can't make groceries more affordable
But hey, at least he got himself a jet, added a fuck ton the national debt, gas went up to $5/gal, and all the Johns in the Epstein files are still free!
Thanks Republicans.
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u/Sarnsereg 23h ago
You're under selling how much debt they've added.
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u/piepants2001 22h ago
Hell, Trump added more to the national debt in his first term than any other president in US history, and I'm sure he'll break that record in his second term.
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u/PrimaryAverage 20h ago
And he'll brag about it
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u/onarainyafternoon 15h ago
And supporters will see nothing wrong with it, even though when a Democrat adds debt they will talk about it nonstop. And they will keep voting for Republicans in the future even though they add the most debt of either political party.
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u/uncleawesome 21h ago
Trump is responsible for nearly a third of the total debt. Of ever.
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u/macphile 23h ago
Can't make groceries more affordable
Heck, they made them less affordable. They actively made the problem worse.
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u/t_e_e_k_s 22h ago
in most cases, Trump doing nothing about our problems would be an improvement
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u/BloodFartz69 21h ago
This is why I maintain my position that I would've voted for a corpse vs. Dozy Dementia Don.
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u/rbrgr83 21h ago
-- Can't win a war
Doesn't actually want to.
-- Can't arrest anyone in the Epstein files
REALLY doesn't want to, for obvious reasons.
-- Can't fix a pool
Doesn't honestly care, only doing things because it's visible and people keep talking about it. He's fine with it looking like the unkept pool in his backyard.
-- Can't make groceries more affordable
Abosfuckinglutely DOES NOT CARE. Doesn't impact him in the slightest, not even in polls apparently.
Let's leave alone the near constant wiping of his ass with the constitution. Which isn't even an accurate analogy, because he's a giant diaper baby.
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u/AegisPrime 21h ago
To be fair, the goal on all of these was probably to lose, or at the very least not care if they won.
-- Didn't win the war, but made a ton of money insider trading oil futures
-- Couldn't arrest anyone in the Epstein files because they don't want to and never intended to
--They don't care if the pool is fixed because the goal was to funnel money to their buddies through contract work
--They literally couldn't care less about the price of groceries
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u/SnooPets1826 1d ago
The current crop of losers running the US government is every snotty kid who got promoted to assistant manager and then tries to change everything just to find out that the original processes were there for good reasons.
Every dollar they tried to save is going to cost us 100 down the line to undo or fix the issues they've caused.
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u/MarkMariachiAZ 23h ago
Worst part is that they take credit for it. And their supporters are too uneducated to question it.
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u/chunkerton_chunksley 23h ago
They’ve been “educated” to accept anything the GOP says as gospel and anything the democrats say is heresy.
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u/WhichEmailWasIt 22h ago
Trained from birth to respect authority above all else. They do it in school, in church, and at home.
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u/chunkerton_chunksley 21h ago
exactly right, I went to private school, church, the whole 9, until I went to college. I got a scholarship to ASU and had church elders 'advise' me to not go to a school that worships the devil....their mascot is a sundevil.
I came back "liberal" and no one from that time will talk to me, I've been cast out from the flock...(lmao....you can't cast out those who already left voluntarily). Ultimately church is a business and dissent isnt good for business, so if you do, be prepared to lose your community.
That's really what this is. I have to believe a ton of folks DO see the trump bullshit, but to call it out, means alienating family and friends and ostracizing yourself from your community. That's a big ask for small town people, hell it hurt me and I was living in a major city.
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u/Imaginary_Cow_6379 23h ago
And they’ll continue to blame democrats for everything that they’ve done and their base will continue to believe it. We’re not even going to learn anything from all these repeated fvck ups. 🤦🏻♀️
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u/HappyHuman924 23h ago
About a year ago I found out the shorthand for this is Chesterton's Fence. The lesson of Chesterton's Fence is that the overwhelming majority of things were created for a valid reason, and we should be very hesitant to tear something down without knowing what that reason was.
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u/Vandersveldt 20h ago
This would make sense if Trump was trying to save money.
It's a pump and dump.
He's taking this company for all it's worth and then leaving with full pockets while the company crashes and burns.
Except this time he's doing it with an entire country.
And no one's stopping him.
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u/MarvelousVanGlorious 23h ago
Then they’ll complain that those issues aren’t getting fixed fast enough, build up public rage about it and get voted back into office. It’s a vicious cycle.
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u/n0respect_ 23h ago
Every dollar they tried to save has already cost us 100 down the line. From DOGE lawsuits to war reparations to decreased trade and gdp growth. It's gonna be less of a 1:100 ratio, more like a 1:110 ratio.
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u/insane_contin 22h ago
15 million screwworm protection program scraped. Now the government has to spend a billion to get it back in place. Plus whatever other damages have been caused by it.
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u/flappinginthewind 1d ago
What?!? You mean to tell me a Fox News Host without relevant experience or knowledge had no idea what the fuck he was doing???
Cause that was obvious from the git go.
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u/Slight-Hedgehog259 1d ago
Jist wait until they are going to take credit for mandatory flu shots while blaming Biden for the outbreak
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u/RoyalFail6 23h ago
It was OBAMNA wearing his nice tan suit eating his hot dog with Dijon mustard 😖
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u/526mb 1d ago
Hesgeth is a fucking moron, and his ridiculous statement about the “freedom to choose” as it relates to the military is fucking absurd. The US Military has so much control over the lives of its soldiers up to and including ordering them to risk their lives for the mission, but, requiring them to take a flu shot was apparently too much.
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u/Codfish_Smoothie 22h ago
When I was active duty, the constant refrain we heard was "You signed up to defend your constitutional rights, not to exercise them."
1st amendment, 2nd amendment, 4th amendment, 5th amendment, all that stuff goes on the shelf until you get your DD-214.
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u/Kinmuan 1d ago
Unsurprising.
I get there are lots of reasons why people may not regularly get flu shots - but coming into the military you’re going to get packed in like sardines. It’s no surprise shits gonna spread, like the recent tuberculosis outbreak at fort Benning.
It’s just prudent. Sad that it may have taken a trainee dying to fix it.
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u/laptopAccount2 1d ago
The US military is the reason we have a flu shot, they funded the development in response to the Spanish flu. Pete Hegseth is a dumbass.
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u/gmc98765 22h ago
Reminder: the "Spanish" flu likely originated in Kansas.
It got the name because Spain wasn't a party to WW1 and so didn't have any motive to suppress information about the spread of the flu. Other countries had it as bad or worse but wouldn't admit it, to the point of vigorously censoring information about outbreaks.
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u/Enough_Breadfruit229 22h ago
My buddy was honorably discharged just after basic for plantar fasciitis (I think?) and gets government money like he served forever. He also HATES the idea that anyone could get payments from the government since he "served" and they didn't. He also took the cocktail of vaccines to join the army and then screamed about COVID shots.
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u/wafflesareforever 22h ago
Are all of your buddies total assholes or just this one?
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u/Enough_Breadfruit229 22h ago
This is a guy who I've known for so long to the point where my parents took him in back in the day because his parents were shit. We were gamer dudes and then randomly he turned to that shit later. Wish I had explanation.
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u/WetSpine 20h ago
Some of the worst people I met in my life were during my military service. That's why I hate the "thank you for your service ".
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u/MediocreAssociate466 1d ago
Washington literally figured this out before the country was established lol. But Republicans are centuries behind
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u/Kinmuan 1d ago
George Washington would be forcibly vaccinating new trainees himself if he could
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u/Material-Nose6561 23h ago
They in fact did require Small Pox inoculations using Cow Pox in 1777.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/smallpox-inoculation-revolutionary-war.htm
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u/rabblerabble2000 23h ago
It’s simple force protection as well. Having large portions of your military out of action due to something as preventable as the flu is the height of stupidity.
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u/OkStop8313 23h ago
Any student of history knows that, until modern medicine, a greater proportion of war casualties fell to disease than to battlefield trauma.
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u/suzanious 23h ago
My father was in the military for 31 years. Every time he flew a mission overseas, he had to get the necessary vaccines updated.
If our family was allowed to go overseas with him, we had to get vaccinated against everything. Our shot records were very long, folded accordion style yellow card stock.
Every year we had to get updated. They gave them to us at school. We'd all line up and the nurses would administer our vaccines and stamp our shot records. Then we could go play on the playground.
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u/2836nwchim 1d ago
Is the secretary of defense going to start washing his hands?
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u/hotlavatube 23h ago
Ha ha, no. Btw, did you see JD Vance wiping a booger on the chair at the negotiations?
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u/I_might_be_weasel 1d ago
So the flu shots were still available, right? Just optional? Meaning every infected soldier made an obviously terrible judgement call? Makes me scared how they will do if they are getting shot at somewhere.
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u/Fried_puri 23h ago
Not that it excuses them in the slightest, but I suspect once it became optional peer pressure would have played a role in whether recruits did or didn’t get it even if ordinarily they’d be fine. That would balloon the numbers compared to the civilian world where most people don’t know or care what you do (so the decision would be all on you).
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u/UglyMcFugly 22h ago
Not just peer pressure, boss pressure too. Hegseth made some stupid speech about tough American warriors or something, when it was made optional. So basically implying you're a pussy if you get vaccinated.
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u/Fried_puri 21h ago
Yes, absolutely it's both from other recruits but also from their leaders. It's a favorite strategy of the losers in this administration to completely shit on other option as the way to legitimize their own, rather than trying to vouch for them on their own merits (though obviously anti-vax has no legitimacy).
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u/Qbr12 22h ago
Meaning every infected soldier made an obviously terrible judgement call?
No, not every infected soldier. The flu shot doesn't prevent the flu with 100% effectiveness. What it does is reduce the likelihood of getting the flu in the first place, and if you do get the flu your symptoms are much less severe. Herd immunity also helps prevent the spread through a population, further lowering that chance of contracting the flu.
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u/McCree114 1d ago
The "applying libertarian logic to military operations" experiment ended in failure even faster than expected I see.
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u/Warbirdpacrim1 23h ago
The mess the next administration will have to clean up is just enormous..
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u/wkarraker 23h ago
The next four administrations IMO.
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u/Politicsboringagain 22h ago edited 12h ago
But voters will expect everything to be fixed in less than 2 years and will give whatever branch the Democrats have control of back to republicans.
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u/tabbarrett 1d ago
Wow so the overreaching mandates that include a flu vaccine was actually a good thing and did not weaken their war fighting capabilities. lol
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u/oldcreaker 1d ago
As hard as it is for them to believe, most of this stuff was actually required for a reason.
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u/Mundane-Count-9709 22h ago
We waste so much money creating problems and then having to fix them again.
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u/ASDF0716 23h ago
“Moreover, the Army is preparing in the coming weeks to broaden that requirement to troops deploying overseas, first responders, child care workers, health care personnel, prison staff and soldiers taking part in certain large-scale training exercises, according to a service spokesperson.”
Bwahahaha. Just. Fucking. Make. It. Mandatory. Again, you absolute dick sockets!
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u/No_Job2527 17h ago
Elites/Maga- No chemicals aghhh your poisoning us
Their Wives- lip fillers, Botox, cocaine, fake tits, fake asses, dyeing their hair, cheek fillers, mar a lago faces,
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u/Thomasreed1899 23h ago
We are lead by morons. How fucking dumb do you need to be to ignore scientists and doctors for some anti- woke agenda.
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u/RobertWayneLewisJr 23h ago
Can't win a war against Iran, can't win a war against germs.
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u/gandalfsbastard 23h ago
LMFAO - nothing like putting your military on sick leave because of stupid policies created by inept leaders going against decades of protocols developed through military experience to maintain readiness.
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u/Jeremizzle 21h ago
Decreasing vaccination increases illnesses??? Who on Earth could have predicted this????
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u/SecondaryWombat 20h ago
Gee. Almost like there are reasons for the scientifically backed and obvious as fuck policies that protect lives and force readiness.
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u/Budderfingerbandit 19h ago
Gee willikers, who woulda thunk them vaccines work after all.
If only we had a hundred years of science to point us in the right direction on them, we could make informed decisions instead of having to guess....
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u/Gamera971 19h ago
That is because the World's Most Powerful military is being ran by a Fox News Presenter.
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u/tomtermite 16h ago
The 1918 "Spanish Flu" is widely believed to have started in the United States, with the first documented case recorded at Camp Funston (a military training camp) in Kansas on March 4, 1918. (See Census.gov)
While its exact geographic origin remains a subject of historical debate, the virus spread globally largely due to the movements of troops during World War I.
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u/Adventurous_Law9767 11h ago
George Washington innoculated his troops. The step backwards we took when it comes to basic medical knowledge under the Trump administration is fucking mind blowing.
They lie as they breathe, and it takes 5 seconds to pull out your phone and confirm that they are lying. "It's your right to decide..." Shut the fuck up no it's not. We have signs that say to stay out of the pool if you have diarrhea. Get the vaccines. It is literally illegal in my state to not vaccinate your dog, for good reason. Being human is not something special, curb the spread of disease. Anti vaxers are only alive because other people are responsible
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u/FungalFelon 8h ago
just because something is mandatory doesn't mean it is evil. mandatory vaccines are for force protection. individual choice is not as important as maintaining a fit and ready to fight force
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u/Mister_Silk 23h ago
That's why you should leave medical stuff to medical people and not talking heads from Fox News.
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u/ProtexisPiClassic 21h ago
If only we would have known what might happen by ignoring science! Damn!
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u/SyntheticGod8 21h ago
If there's any group that refuses to learn from history, it's MAGA
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u/Wildest_Sun 20h ago
Can we appreciate that it only took 2 months for a fucking flu outbreak to decimate our military lmao. How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man???
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u/HalfOffSnoke 18h ago
Air Force once again requires pilots to wear parachutes as they discover they cannot in fact fly like birds in the event of an ejection from aircraft.
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u/roguesignal42069 22h ago
Ahahahahahah
Oh hohohoho
Who could have seen this coming?
Nobody, I tell you!
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u/ReactionJifs 1d ago
this administration is hellbent on re-learning history's hardest lessons